History of Flight
On May 22, 2017, about 1805 Alaska daylight time, an Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter, registration N207CH, was substantially damaged when it collided with snow-covered mountainous terrain. The accident occurred after the helicopter departed a remote landing site on the Herbert Glacier, about 21 miles north of Juneau, Alaska. The helicopter was operated by Coastal Helicopters Inc. as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 on-demand air taxi flight. The flight originated from Juneau International Airport at 1743, with degraded visual meteorological conditions reported on the glacier at the time of the accident. Company flight following procedures were in effect.
The purpose of the flight was to transport five cruise ship passengers who had completed a dogsledding shore excursion and one musher back to the operator's headquarters. The operator was contracted to provide helicopter transportation to and from the glacier where the dogsledding was conducted.
Earlier, the accident passengers had been transported to the dog camp by another pilot in the same helicopter. That pilot then returned to Juneau, picked up another set of passengers, and transported them to the glacier. The accident helicopter was one of two company helicopters that departed for the glacier. En route, the pilot noted deteriorating weather conditions moving up the glacier, described as swirling clouds. The pilot reported these conditions via radio to the operator's headquarters, and both helicopters elected to return to Juneau. Upon landing, the passengers disembarked, and the two pilots were replaced by other company pilots who were permitted to fly in lower weather conditions. The two helicopters then departed empty to pick up the passengers on the glacier. The accident pilot stated that en route, cloud ceilings and visibility were really good, with a few clouds moving around as she neared the glacier.
After landing at the dog camp and boarding passengers, the other helicopter departed first, followed by the accident helicopter. The pilot reported that she took off and proceeded down the glacier. About three-quarters of a mile from the camp, she noted an area of fog along the intended route and chose to return to the dog camp to wait for conditions to improve. She turned the helicopter toward a rocky area to maintain visual contact with the ground when, during the turn, the helicopter impacted snow-covered, featureless terrain and came to rest inverted.
One passenger reported that he could not see anything because of the thick fog. Another passenger described seeing white everywhere and stated that you could not tell the sky from the ground.
Flight Recorders
The helicopter did not carry, nor was it required to carry, a crashworthy flight data recorder. At the time of the accident, the operator did not have a formal flight data monitoring program in place, nor was it required to have one.
Survival Aspects
After the helicopter impacted terrain, the passenger seated in the far-right seat of the cabin was unable to activate the buckle of the three-point restraint system to egress from the inverted helicopter. The pilot noticed that the passenger appeared disoriented. The pilot used a personal Leatherman multi-tool to cut through the belt material and release the passenger. The passenger then egressed from the helicopter without further incident.